


Sasori's Heart

by sweetrosei



Category: Naruto
Genre: Brief Suicide Reference, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Tragic Romance, starts fluffy then turns angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 14:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4140861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetrosei/pseuds/sweetrosei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deidara was as beautiful as Sasori’s own art, and art should be eternal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sasori's Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this post on my tumblr http://sweetrosei.tumblr.com/post/121363437904/okay-but-imagine-if-sasori-secretly-made-a

Deidara was always beautiful to Sasori. Even back when he was just a regular annoying brat and not the annoying brat who had captured his heart, Sasori thought he was beautiful. If Sasori still had a human body, he knew his breath would catch when sunlight hit that golden hair in a way that made him glow. His heart would skip a beat when Deidara flashed him that exhilarated grin as he blew up another perfect sculpture and made his art. Butterflies would fill his stomach when Dei rolled over in his sleep and cuddled closer to him with a soft happy sound. His pulse would race when they whispered “I love you”. Sasori couldn’t feel any of those physical things, but that didn’t mean he experienced his love for Deidara any less.

It had taken him by surprise. After his parents died, Sasori lost interest in love. It stopped being something he looked for or cared about. So, not only did it take a long time for him to realise the depth of his feelings for Deidara, but he was at a loss for what to do once he did know. He was confident that Deidara held romantic feelings for him, since the brat wasn’t at all embarrassed about expressing it. That didn’t make it easier for Sasori to open up about his own feelings though.

They ended up taking the first step in a clichéd way. They were out on a mission and far away from any civilised place where they could stay, so they were camping under the stars. Sasori had long ago worked out how to fit Deidara into Hiruko with him, thanks to previous missions where the weather had turned particularly bad and he’d given into his partner’s grumbling and begging. After that, Deidara just complained that it was cramped, but never got out when Sasori pointed out that he didn’t have to stay in there.

That particular night, Sasori had Hiruko’s back open so they could look up at the stars without being out in the wind. Deidara had Sasori’s cloak and his own acting as blankets to keep him warm and cosy and had pulled Sasori to him. Sasori had reminded him that he wouldn’t give off any warmth that Deidara could leech, but that didn’t deter him. Dei just laughed and made embarrassing comments about being happy to be so close to Sasori, who grumbled and tried to distract him by talking about the constellations.

Sasori noticed the mistake in his choice of distraction when Deidara put his head on his shoulder and he realised he’d dived straight into a classic romance setting. He wasn't going to stop now though. Instead, he started going into detail about Scorpio, which Deidara had asked about with a sparkle in his eyes. Soon, Sasori found himself under the cloaks too with Deidara's head on his core, mumbling sleepily that it had been a good date.

Things developed pretty quickly after that. Before that night, Deidara had often crashed in Sasori's room when he fell asleep talking to him. Sasori didn't need the bed, so he didn't complain. After things changed, Deidara slept there every night. Deidara also started cuddling up to Sasori when they were in private, and Sasori would just adjust his position to let Dei get comfortable while he continued what was doing. Their daily lives didn't change much. It felt like how things should be.

~

Sasori knew Deidara would die young. He’d said it not long after they’d first met. He knew it was true then and it was still true now. It was only a matter of time until it happened. While Deidara was fine with the idea of a short life, Sasori was far less okay with losing Deidara so soon. Dei was the first person since his parents that Sasori had come to care for so deeply and he was so beautiful and so important that he couldn’t let him fade away like that. Deidara might like the idea of things being temporary, but Sasori needed him for longer.

Sasori would never turn Deidara into a human puppet, Dei would hate it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make a regular puppet replica. Deidara was as beautiful as Sasori’s own art to him, and art should be eternal.

So, he worked on a puppet Deidara in secret. He created it with extra careful detail, making it as perfect as he could. He didn’t design it for battle, but he did add some explosive devices in the hands in honour of Deidara’s choice of weapon and art. Despite the detail, it didn’t take him long to make since he knew the original so well.

Sasori sat back and looked over his creation with the satisfaction that only came from making the most beautiful art. The longer he looked at it though, the more he felt a creeping feeling that something was missing. It looked exactly like Deidara but it lacked his spark. Deidara was beautiful on the outside, of course, but it was the whole of him, his life, soul, personality, whatever you wanted to call it, that was what made him beautiful beyond all others.

His solution was to start storing memories of Deidara with the puppet. He already had some sketches of Deidara and some little letters or memos containing stories of things they’d done or emotional scribblings that he’d (sometimes unsuccessfully) kept hidden. Deidara’s lack of embarrassment had rubbed off on him to some degree, so he regularly told Deidara how beautiful and important he was to him (along with all their usual arguments), but showing how deeply he loved him through his actions and a few spoken words was a lot easier than showing him his feelings written down. The notes and sketches were kept secret and added to the puppet, ensuring that it wouldn’t just be Deidara’s physical beauty that would be recorded forever.

The first thing he added was a drawing and description of the night things between them had changed, along with a torn off corner of paper with a bird that Deidara had doodled on one of Sasori’s sketched plans for a future puppet.

~

When Sasori entered the fight with Chiyo and Sakura he fully intended to come out of it alive. If he’d known that he’d end up making the decision not to dodge those swords beforehand, he would have said a real goodbye to Deidara, or at least done something to express his love once more. As it was, he could only picture Deidara flying away as the world got dark around him and he bled out onto the stone. The decision felt right, but he regretted how much it would hurt the man he loved.

~

Sasori knew Kankuro was right; he would be eternal through the puppets he left behind. Kankuro seemed to understand him more than most, and as a fellow puppet master, Sasori had no second thoughts about passing on his puppets to him. Kankuro would take good care of them and make sure they got passed on for generations. His only regret was leaving Deidara behind for a second time. His heart broke as he listened to Deidara screaming for him while his body crumbled.

~

Kankuro had first assumed Sasori and Deidara had gotten on fairly well as partners. The way Sakura and the others had described their little art quarrel, it sounded to him more like something playful between friends rather than a real argument. His first hint that there was something other than friendship between them was the way Deidara had reacted to Sasori’s second death.

It wasn’t until a few months later that Kankuro’s suspicion was confirmed. He’d been slowly making his way through all the scrolls containing puppets that Sasori had left for him. He’d checked each one out and learnt about their traps and attacks before storing them safely. He picked out the ones he wanted to use in battle and passed some others onto the ninja academy to be used for training. He was down to the last four scrolls when he opened one that made his eyes widen in surprise. For a second he thought Sasori had made a human puppet of his partner but then he remembered that Deidara had died after Sasori, which meant that this had to be a regular puppet. The detail on it was incredible and it was by far the most lifelike thing Sasori had created - in Kankuro’s opinion anyway. Getting over his awe of the impressive artistry, Kankuro started looking for weapons. As far as he could tell the only attacks on it were in the hands, which would shoot out explosives. Kankuro laughed as he realised he shouldn’t have expected anything else.

He assumed the pouches on the puppet’s sides would contain clay, to match what knew the real Deidara carried with him, but he was surprised when he opened them and found rolls of paper. He opened them without a second thought and was surprised again when the first one turned out to be a drawing. It was a sketch of Hiruko in a field beneath the stars, with two little blond and red heads just barely visible above Hiruko’s sides. Kankuro smiled softly as he read the attached note then continued looking through the pouches, realising they contained Sasori’s memories and feelings for his partner.

Kankuro carefully put everything back into the pouches and put the puppet back into the scroll. It didn’t take long for him to build a safe storage compartment and put the scroll inside for protection.   

For months, Kankuro had been debating what to do with the hole in Sasori’s puppet body where his core had been. He’d considered a range of different tricks and weapons but none had felt right. Sasori had poured his soul into this creation and that had been where his last physical human part had been. He couldn’t put just anything in there, but now he knew.

Kankuro slid the compartment into place and locked it in tight. The new compartment filled the space perfectly. The puppet was finally whole again. Sasori had been reunited with his heart once more.


End file.
